TOKYO — Doctors have determined that almost all of the dozens of people killed on a Japanese volcano died of injuries from being hit by rocks that flew out during its eruption, police said Thursday.
Rescuers have retrieved 47 bodies from the ash-covered summit area of Mount Ontake since Saturday’s eruption.
Doctors concluded that all but one of the bodies showed signs of having been hit by volcanic boulders and rocks, Nagano prefectural police said. The other victim died of burns from inhaling hot air.

Iceland lowered its aviation alert level to orange from red Sunday, saying there was no sign of an imminent eruption at the Bardarbunga volcano. And scientists at the Icelandic Meteorological Office said their announcement Saturday that the volcano had experienced a subglacial eruption was wrong.
But the office cautioned in a statement that seismic activity at the volcano, which has been hit by thousands of earthquakes over the past week, was not slowing, and an eruption remained a possibility in coming days.

During the crisis Iceland was held up as one of the best examples of what was so wrong with the bubble that was created and sold to any and all. The party in power during this debacle was summarily dismissed by the people. However, a mere few years later, and given the apparent abhorrence with all things European, the Icelandic people have just ousted the incumbent pro-Europe party in favor of the Independence and Progressive parties that governed during the crisis.

Australian flights grounded by the Chilean ash cloud gradually resumed Wednesday, but thousands of passengers face lengthy delays as airlines scramble to clear a massive backlog. Hundreds of services were cancelled Tuesday in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra but the threat of prolonged disruption eased as the plume from the Puyehue volcano eruption pushed out towards the Tasman Sea and New Zealand.National carrier Qantas restored flights to and from the South Australian capital Adelaide before dawn, and they were followed by Melbourne.

Australian flights grounded by the Chilean ash cloud gradually started to resume Wednesday, but thousands of passengers face more delays as airlines scramble to clear a massive backlog.Hundreds of services were cancelled Tuesday in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra but the threat of prolonged disruption has eased as the plume from the Puyehue volcano eruption pushes out towards the Tasman sea.National carrier Qantas restored flights to and from the South Australian capital Adelaide before dawn, and they will be followed by Melbourne at 11:00am (0100 GMT).